Scared of the dark?

March 01, 2016

I can remember all the way back to when I was a no more than 5 or 6, begging my parents to leave to light on because I was scared of the dark. My mom would eventually sympathize, while my dad would mutter something about how we leave too many lights on. Fast forward to today; no longer afraid of the dark, but with a growing fascination with light and technology – I've been a photographer for 6 years. Wouldn't it have been convenient if my parents were able to just dim my lights once I fell asleep without waking me?

Cue me joining emberlight and starting to write for this blog.

Though I can neither confirm nor deny if our CEO Atif Noori has ever been afraid of the dark, I can say that he too has a fascination with light and technology. For Atif, it was flipping through the SkyMall magazines on various flights thinking "These gadgets are neat, but who really uses them?" and "What's the goal of most of these devices? Simplifying your life, adding convenience, alleviating stress? But most of them end up complicating your life, are incredibly time consuming and ridiculously difficult to install!." This thinking inspired his creation of the emberlight socket.

For him (and all parents of scared-of-the-dark-children), the goal was solving the chore of constantly remembering to turn lights on and off. Coming home in the evening to a completely dark house. Finding lights left on all around the house in the middle of the day. Setting up and remembering to use timers when out for the evening. Does this sound familiar? So Atif brought together a team of engineers and designers with the singular goal of building a product that not only solves these problems, but enhances your entire home lighting experience.

So what is the solution? The first product from emberlight is the "emberlight socket'; a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatible smart lighting socket that adds intelligence and connectivity to almost any type of bulb, or lighting fixture. It works with your existing incandescent, LED, compact fluorescent (CFL) or halogen light bulbs. After an incredibly simple setup process, you'll be able to control that light bulb with your smartphone from anywhere in the world. The emberlight socket can detect your presence outside and automatically switch on the porch lights for you! It can wake you up with a gentle simulated sunrise from your bedside light. And if you, or your children, are afraid of the dark, it can gently light your hallways at night and remember to turn off those lights at dawn.

In the coming months I'm looking forward to shedding a more light on our story.